INTERVIEW: FAUX

After having the delight of speaking to Counterfeit just moments prior, we wandered down the backstage corridor of the O2 Academy 3 Birmingham, awaiting to talk to the somewhat unknown, enigmatic, ‘dirty pop’ collective that is FAUX.

Joined by Lee, Daly, Luke and James – we spent what felt like a very quick 10-15 minutes, getting to know the Southampton-based outfit.

A little bit on the generic side to start off with, as you are currently breaking out onto the scene with more exposure as of late. But how did you all meet and form the band?

Lee: “Well, some of us used to be in some bands from Southampton, we chatted about wanting to do something a little different. Luke was at Uni with James -”

Luke: “I was at Uni for a week!”

*(Que some uncontrollable hilarious group laughter)*

James: “You were in my year, and then went ‘Nah let’s do the first year again!’ and ended up doing your first year again!”

Luke: “Pretty much, yeah well we met there…”

Lee: “So Uni was one of the reasons why we managed to get together to make music. Then Daly works at the studio we recorded at, so we recruited him”.

How have you found the tour so far?

James: “All the fun in the world, and it’s been all sorts of fun. I would call it our first ‘real’ tour”.

Lee: “Yeah, like we have done weekender tours, with our mates’ bands, things like that, and supported some really cool bands during one off gigs. But we thought on this tour, that we would get to see more of the city’s. Yet after we get in, sound check and go play, watch Tigress and watch Counterfeit play, then pack up, we end up being up past midnight and then have to go onto the next show!”.

Luke: “We have literally seen no parts of the UK that we wanted to see”.

James: “But – we had a great time in Scotland”.

Lee: “Yeah… we had a ‘real quite time’ in Glasgow”

(*Let’s make it very obvious, FAUX are sharp, witty, comical and very down to earth, we spent the next twenty seconds laughing non-stop*)

Luke: “We were up until 4 o’clock in the morning”

James: “It probably explains why we are so tired”.

You describe your genre as ‘Dirty Pop’, would you care to expand on this and clear up what this means?

Lee: “Pop/Rock is just an old hat term now and We wanna write ‘Pop-catchy’ songs, but we want them to be interesting, alternative and a bit heavier, but the term just came about and it just sits really”.

Luke: “We don’t sound like a typical Pop/Rock band so you don’t want to just re-name something and then sound like any old band”.

Lee: We do keep getting asked what genre we are though, and none of us really knew what to say… so… we just stand there and we are like… ‘Erm we have guitars – we have guitars!’ – ‘I can sorta sing harmonies and we have guitars!’, you know”.

Which leads us to ask what influences you have, what has helped define your sound when writing?

Lee: “So we all have our own specialist interests and areas, and draw from that and mix it all together into something we all enjoy”.

James: “We are definitely pulling from a lot of different areas”.

Luke: “Daly likes cool music and I like shit music!”

Lee: “And I only like two bands”.

For any future releases, such as EPs and albums, do you have anything planned or ready?

Daly: “I think the key plan for the end of this tour is to get back to writing really, we already have two EPs out”.

Lee: “We have some things in the tank, but we want to play around with certain things until we actually release something, but it’s coming, it’s definitely coming”.

Invicta: “As we draw to a close, do you have any themes or issues that you feel goes into the lyrics you write?”

James: “Well Lee does all the lyrics really”.

Lee: “Well it’s sometimes topical as things revolve around what’s going on in my life, or it is based on something someone I know, or what someone I know has said to me”.

We thank FAUX for their time and sitting down with us and providing us with some insight and some great comical moments. It was a true honour and was extremely refreshing. We wish them the best for the future and look forward to any future releases they bring out soon. We also want to thank Lee for being such a comedian with his quote of the interview: “Well Saturday gigs are usually pretty good, because Wednesday can be a little bit rope-y, where you are just like ‘Please come mum! Watch us play”.